Ambitious plans to uplift livelihood of fishermen

​Mahabubnagar: With the State government releasing Rs 84 crores for the fisheries departments of four districts of erstwhile Mahabubnagar, the district administration along with the fisheries department are busy charting out ambitious plans for the upliftment of livelihoods of fishermen in the four districts of Nagarkurnool, Wanaparthy, Gadwal and Mahabubnagar. 

With the initiative to uplift the livelihoods of fishermen, the State government has embarked upon to give subsidised loans and vehicles to fishermen under the Integrated Fisheries Development Scheme (IFDS). 

According to Qadeer Ahmad, the Assistant Director (AD) of Fisheries Department, Mahbubnagar district, this is the first time that the government had sanctioned such a huge amount of funds in the budget to strengthen the fisheries department in the district.

The authorities of fisheries department have begun the process of receiving online applications from the fishermen from April 12 to avail various benefits offered by the government. The last date for submitting online applications is May 25. The AD informed the members of fishermen community to submit their applications online before the deadline to avail the benefits. 

The IFDS scheme is jointly implemented by Telangana State fisheries cooperative societies’ federation and the fisheries department. As part of the scheme, the authorities will provide fish seeds and all necessary equipment required for rearing and catching the fish. The individual fishermen and members of fishermen societies will also be provided necessary training for processing and marketing skills to sell their produce effectively at a decent profit. 

At present there are 602 fishermen societies in the entire erstwhile Mahabubnagar district, with 35,600 members. Once this scheme is implemented, all these fishermen were expected to get the benefits of the government scheme. As part of the subsidised schemes the fisheries department is expected to provide 30 different kinds of equipments to the fishermen in the district.